NY Jets defense demonstrates its top-ranked power in 37-0 victory over Cincinnati Bengals

Andrew Mills/The Star-LedgerJets safety James Ihedigbo sacks Bengals backup QB J.T. O'Sullivan to force a fumble and secure the shutout for the Jets late in the second half.Two weeks ago, the Jets defense seemingly jeopardized the team’s playoff hopes by giving up a game-winning touchdown to the Falcons.

Last week, Rex Ryan felt the unit wasn’t given enough credit for holding the Colts to just 15 points with Peyton Manning in the game.

Well, how’s this for a regular-season finale: In front of a national Sunday Night Football audience, the aggressive, stingy unit the first-year head coach built his team around did exactly what he hoped when he took over — pave the Jets’ path to the playoffs.

They did so with a 37-0 shutout win over the Bengals, that also left the Jets standing as the No. 1 defense in the league.

“We had to take our level of intensity up, because we feel like we are the backbone of this team,” linebacker Calvin Pace said after the win that secured the AFC’s No. 5 seed. “And that’s not a knock on our offense. But we feel like our team goes as our defense goes.”

The Bengals, whose postseason bid was already locked up before Sunday night’s game, did sit starting running back Cedric Benson. But after a week of speculation about how much their starters would play, Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer was on the field into the third quarter. Backup J.T. O’Sullivan replaced him with the Bengals trailing, 30-0.

It seemed like the Bengals offense might be in for a long night when safety Kerry Rhodes blitzed on Cincinnati’s first play from scrimmage and batted Palmer’s pass incomplete. The Bengals went three-and-out on that possession — and on three of their first four possessions.

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In fact, Cincinnati’s only first down of the half came via an illegal contact penalty on Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis. Teammate Dwight Lowery intercepted Palmer inside of the two-minute warning to cap a dreadful first half for the Bengals, in which they had seven yards of total offense and only held the ball for 5:10.

“They played their starters for a while,” Rhodes said. “We came out and set our tempo from the beginning. We just came out, wanted to shut them out and we did.”

Lowery’s interception was one of three turnovers the Jets defense forced — along with two forced fumbles of O’Sullivan in the fourth quarter by safeties Jim Leonhard and James Ihedigbo. Rhodes, who had been benched earlier in the season, ran the first one 44 yards into Bengals territory, part of a busy night which included two pass deflections and a crushing hit on an incompletion to receiver Chad Ochocinco.

Ochocinco, who hyped his matchup with Revis all week, was targeted four times for zero catches before leaving with a knee injury at halftime — a shutout Revis attributed to “me just doing my job.”

Palmer’s 1-for-11 performance wasn’t helped by several drops by Bengals receivers — but the team’s passers faced a good amount of pressure all night and were credited with an eye-popping zero passing yards. All together, Cincinnati had 72 yards of offense, but nothing spoke louder than the final shutout score.

“It’s kind of a testament, because the Falcons game, we had a letdown,” defensive end Shaun Ellis said. “We talked amongst ourselves to dominate from the start. We kind of did that today.”Jenny Vrentas may be reached at jvrentas@starledger.com